Pay as you go electricity is the fastest and easiest way to get electricity running to your home. No deposit. No credit check. No hassle. As long as your house, apartment, or trailer has a smart energy meter–and almost all of them in Texas do–you can likely have no-deposit electricity on within the hour!
Prepaid electricity: 4 easy steps
- Call TruEnergy at 855.625.3205 or email us at CustomerService@TruEnergy.com Let us help you find the best electric provider to get you set up right away.
- Load an initial payment onto your account. Most Texas energy providers don’t require you to pay more than $40 to get started. Once your payment goes through, the provider will have the utility company turn your power on. In many cases, this will be done within the hour. In almost all cases, it is same-day service.
- Get daily text updates or check your balance through the power provider’s website or app. Monitor your electricity usage and adjust accordingly. You can even receive text reminders when you need to add money to your account!
- When your balance is low, simply make a payment to add more funds. You can pay online or by phone, and depending on the provider, you can even pay at some local payment locations.
Prepay and pay as you go! It couldn’t be simpler!
Is a prepaid electricity plan right for you?
Lots of people know about ‘pay as you go’ as being a common option with cell phones, but it’s becoming more and more popular for other products. Some car insurance companies now have “pay per mile” plans, and yes, many Texas electric companies have plans that allow you to do essentially the same.
A prepaid electricity plan is a great option for people in many different types of situations:
- College students
- Apartment renters
- Businesses with corporate apartments or houses that are only used sporadically
- People with bad or no credit
- Anyone who can’t afford or doesn’t want to pay for a deposit
- Someone who just wants to be able to adjust their electricity usage according to what they want to pay
No long-term commitment
With pay as you go power, there is no electricity contract. You can get electrical service turned on simply by adding funds to your account. Need to shut off power at a moment’s notice? No problem. You’re not bound for a specific period of time, and there are no extra fees for canceling your power plan early.
No deposit, no credit check!
When you prepay for electricity, there is no deposit and no credit check. You don’t have to worry about your credit score, and you won’t have to come up with a huge amount of money for a deposit to get the power turned on. Put $40 on your account, and you have $40 of electricity to use. It’s that simple!
No monthly bill to be paid
How many times have you been shocked by your electricity bill? A pay-as-you-go electric plan means you won’t be surprised by a huge power bill to pay at the end of the month. In fact, you won’t receive a bill for the electricity at all! With daily text reminders and monitoring on your mobile device, you will know exactly how much electricity is being used at any time. If you see your money slipping away a little too quickly, you can make adjustments then and there. Quit trying to budget for an unpredictable bill. Track your electricity usage so it’s right where you budgeted it to be!
Call TruEnergy today for more information on how a prepaid electric plan could help you!
How much do you pay for prepaid electricity?
Per kwh, you are going to pay a little more for electricity than you would if you were in a electric contract. However, it’s still quite possible to pay less with pre-paid electricity! How? One of the benefits of pay as you go electricity is that it makes you more aware of how much power you’re using. No one likes the dread of getting the month’s energy bill in the mail and wondering how bad it’s going to be. It’s all too easy to let your electricity usage get away from you without realizing it. With prepaid electricity, this is no longer an issue. When you are able to watch how much electricity you use, your total energy bill is going to be lower, so in that sense, it can actually be cheaper.
Additionally, you’re not going to see the hidden fees and service charges (or the deposit) that can be in a standard energy contract. You pay one rate. Period. No more confusing energy bills, and no more trying to understand what it is you’re paying.
Finally, with prepaid power, there is never a deposit and there are never penalty fees like you would have if you needed to break an energy contract. You only pay for the energy you use–when you use it–and you can end the service any time you want!
Knowing when to make a payment on your account
After you have enrolled in a pay as you go energy plan, you can get daily text and email notifications of how much energy you have used and how much money is left in your account. Many Texas power providers also have online portals or apps you can use to login and monitor your usage. As long as there’s money, your power stays on. When your balance starts to get low, all you have to do is add funds–over the phone, online, or at a local payment center. Add as much or as little as you want, and add it when it’s convenient for you.
Want to make it even easier? Just like with a regular energy bill, you can use Autopay to add funds to your account whenever more money is needed. With this, you don’t have to worry about your balance reaching zero and your power getting turned off. Call us today, and let us walk you through this and other money-saving options!
Tracking your electric usage
One of the benefits of a pay as you go energy plan is that it gives you the ability to track your electricity usage in real time. You can log in online to check your usage, but the provider will also send you daily text messages and/or emails so that you are always on top of your usage patterns. These notifications will include an overview of:
- amount of electricity used for the day
- average electricity usage
- available balance on your energy account
- estimated number of days remaining
- reminders when your funds are getting low
The main purpose of these notifications is so that you always know how much money is in your account and how long that should last. The added benefit, though, is that you can use this to lower what you spend! Are you starting to see your electricity usage creep up? You can start looking for waste before it gets out of hand. (Who wants to wait until the end of the month to see that on their energy bill?) Do you need to make the money you have budgeted stretch a little further? You can look for small adjustments to make on a daily or weekly basis.
Call us today to get information on how prepaid energy can help you make the most of your electricity budget!
What you need to sign up for a prepaid energy account
Setting up a pay as you go account is quick and easy. In fact, all you need to be able to sign up is a smart meter. This is what makes it possible for you to track your electricity usage in real time, and it’s what makes it possible for the energy provider to turn your power on so quickly. Best of all, this is something that most houses, apartments and trailers in Texas already have. Chances are you have one, and if so, you’re ready to sign up!
When you sign up, all you need is the initial money to load onto your account. Most electricity providers require $20 – $40 to start, but other than that, you can pay as much or as little as you want–whenever you want!
With prepaid power, there are also several key things you don’t need.
- payment history
- credit check
- social security number
- deposit
- long-term commitment
Can anyone sign up for a pay as you go plan?
Generally speaking, yes. But there are a couple of limitations with pay as you go. A customer who has been deemed “critical care” or “chronic care” is not eligible for a prepaid power account. These customers are at heightened risk of becoming seriously ill or having a life-threatening event if the power were to be disconnected. For the safety of these customers, a prepaid energy plan would not be suitable.
